5 of 5It's been a while, but Martin Truex Jr. still remembered how to have fun in victory lane.

Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

There's little in his history to explain why New Jersey native Martin Truex Jr. would be so competent on road courses, but the driver of the NAPA Auto Parts Toyota cemented that perception with a dominating win on the first of the two Sprint Cup road course races this season, the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in California on Sunday.

Truex, 32, came from a 14th-place starting spot to beat Jeff Gordon to the checkered flag by a stunning 8.1 seconds. Juan Pablo Montoya had a lock on second place but ran out of gas on the last lap, and coasted to the finish line at walking speed, parking on the line for a 34th place finish -- the last car on the lead lap.

Third was Carl Edwards, fourth a resurgent Kurt Busch after a dreadful day that at one point had him a lap down after two straight speeding-on-pit-road penalties. “We were fast all day,” he joked, “Even on pit road! It was my bad I blew a pretty strong car and came home fourth with it.” Fifth was Clint Bowyer, the 2012 winner and Truex's teammate.

Truex, a two-time Nationwide series champ, was the ninth different winner in nine Cup races at Sonoma. He led 51 laps, more than anyone else. This is his first road course win. “We have had fast cars and some tough luck. I just have to think everyone who stood behind me.”

This was Truex's second victory in 277 races -- his first came 218 races ago at Dover, so he is breaking the second-longest losing streak in series history, behind Bill Elliott's 226-race losing streak between 2001 and 2007. “It's a load off my shoulders,” Truex admitted. “We could have won three or four races in the last year and a half, but things didn't play out in our favor. Today, they did.” It was, he said, “So easy.”

No one gave this to Truex -- he won because of flawless driving, solid pit work and a very quick car. “Obviously I'm ecstatic,” Truex said, “but I'm not 100 percent sure how it happened.” The car wasn't that good in practice or qualifying, and there was an electrical issue, so neither Truex nor his crew was certain what to expect. “But after the first 15 or 20 laps, the car just came to me. We adjusted air pressure on the first pit stop, and the car was phenomenal after that. It's just a special day for me.”

“This was a real battle,” Edwards said. “I'm proud of my position. It was a pretty dynamic race. The handling changed a lot during the day. A top-three finish is something we can be proud of.”

Drama started even before the green flag fell -- the No. 47 of Bobby Labonte was pushed back to the garage after the engines started, apparently with cooling issues. And as they rolled off the starting line, the No. 83 of David Reutimann stopped dead, causing the car behind him, Alex Kennedy, to check up, and that caused Paulie Harraka in the No. 52 Ford to smack Kennedy's No. 19 Ford hard in the rear.

Meanwhile, Jacques Villeneuve's No. 51 Chevrolet was up on jack stands on pit road, with crewmen working underneath on his transmission.

And if that wasn't enough, parts of the course were getting some rain -- unheard of this time of year for this race.

Bowyer and Ambrose finally led the field to the green flag after six caution laps. Ambrose jumped to an early lead. Labonte managed to get his car to the grid, took the green flag late -- then promptly stopped on a runoff area, his day done with zero laps to his credit.

The tone of the race was arguably set on lap three when Montoya, in his No. 42 Chevrolet, dive-bombed Joey Logano and cleared him coming into turn 11, but then hit Kyle Busch's No. 18 Toyota, spinning Busch and thus serving notice that Montoya, as usual on road courses, isn't afraid to use the bumper.

Caution flew on lap five for Harraka, whose car was repaired from the pre-race shunt into Kennedy. Harraka, making his first Cup start, hit the wall and his car had to be towed back to the garage. This let the field close up on Ambrose, who had not been challenged from the green flag.

On the lap eight restart, it was Ambrose, followed by Kurt Busch in the No. 78 Chevrolet, then pole sitter Jamie McMurray in the No. 1 Chevrolet. Bowyer, was running fourth and closing, eventually passing McMurray for third.

Busch stalked Ambrose and managed to get by him on lap 18, with third-place McMurray closing up. On the same lap, Danica Patrick tried to pass Justin Marks' number 7 Chevrolet in turn 11 and lost it, spinning harmlessly but losing several positions, dropping her to 40th, ahead only of the Nos. 37, 52 and 47, which were in the garage.

Villeneuve took the James Finch-owned No. 51 to the pits on lap 22 as his bad day got worse. He completed only 19 laps and finished 41st of the 43 starters.

The caution flag flew for the second time lap 24 for rain on parts of the 1.99-mile, 11-turn circuit. When the race went green six laps later, it was Kurt Busch, Ambrose, Bowyer, McMurray and Montoya in the top five. None of the drivers in the top nine had pitted, but when the caution came out again on lap 30 for a crash by Kennedy, all the leaders came to the pit except for leader Kurt Busch, who apparently was sticking with a plan for a two-stop race. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were penalized for speeding on pit road, sending the two Joe Gibbs cars to the rear.

On the lap 33 restart, Busch led Brad Keselowski to the green flag, Keselowski having pitted out a sequence a few laps before. Keselowski got by Kurt Busch, with Kasey Kahne in third, Aric Almirola in fourth. Busch dropped back two more positions, and pitted on lap 35 under a green flag. His strategy was hampered slightly by another too-fast-on-pit-road penalty, requiring a drive-through penalty, but he was too fast in his pass-through, requiring a stop-and-go, dropping him to 38th and a lap down.

Meanwhile, Keslowski had his hands full holding off Kahne, Martin Truex and Truex's Toyota teammate, Brian Vickers. Truex got by for the lead in lap 40 when Keselowski swung wide on a turn, and Truex began to check out. One lap later, Vickers got by Keselowski for second, putting the pair of Michael Waltrip Racing Toyotas up front. Early leader Ambrose had fallen to 12th, and did not seem able to move up much.

A very motivated Kurt Busch ran down Vickers, then leader Truex, getting his lap back, but leaving him 78 seconds behind the lead position. He'd need some luck, and probably a caution or two, in order to get back into contention. In the end, his charge to fourth was the most exciting aspect of the day.

Of the road course “ringers” -- drivers who normally don't have a ride on oval tracks -- Boris Said made the most noise during the first half of the 110-lap race, running a solid eighth by lap 50 in his No. 32 Ford. Ron Fellows was just outside the top 25 in his No. 33 Chevrolet. Said ended up 18th, Fellows 22nd.

At lap 55, the halfway mark, it was Truex, Vickers, Kahne, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson. Past winners Tony Stewart was 22nd, and Jeff Gordon was 19th. Four cars were formally out of the race: Kennedy, Villeneuve, J.J. Yeley and Labonte. Kurt Busch was passed by leader Truex on lap 54, putting him back to one lap down.

Patrick had cracked the top 30 when a flat rear tire sent her into a spin, and into a tire wall, bringing out the fourth caution flag, catching some of the leaders by surprise -- some had already made a pit stop, some were about to. Several leaders pit under yellow on lap 64, while others like McMurray and Carl Edwards stayed out.

The race restarted on lap 66 with McMurray leading Truex and Edwards to the green. Truex moved quickly to the front and to a comfortable lead. Patrick, in her taped-up Chevrolet, was 35th.

Caution fell again on lap 67 when Hamlin, having a miserable day already, spun after being tagged by Stewart. Hamlin came to rest in the grass, setting the grass on fire, but he was able to drive to the pits. Several of the leaders put under the yellow flag, leaving Joey Logano out in the lead, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Even with this stop, it seems unlikely anyone could make it to the end without another stop unless there are a lot of caution laps.

Which didn't take long, because on the restart, a slow takeoff caused a traffic jam that ended up spinning Victor Gonzalez, so the caution stayed out until lap 73, with Logano and Earnhardt out front, followed by Gordon. McMurray, an early leader, had a flat that sent him off the track, and likely out of contention, though it did not bring out a caution. Several other leaders had fallen back, too -- on lap 75, Ambrose was 20th, Kurt Busch 21st.

Gordon took the lead from Logano on lap 79, likely in part because Logano's tires were several laps older than Gordon's. Logano was in second, Truex third, Matt Kenseth fifth.

Caution fell again for the seventh and final time on lap 82 when Kyle Busch backed hard into a tire wall after contact with Carl Edwards, racing for 15th. Busch drove away, but his chances for a good finish were done. Gordon, Logano, Kahne, Earnhardt, Johnson and several other front-runners pitted for tires and fuel. When the field went back to green on lap 85, the first 15 cars stayed out, with Truex, Kenseth and Montoya in the top three. Johnson, in 16th, was the first car in the lineup that pit, and oddly Johnson took only two tires.

Ambrose, who did not pit, was suddenly back in contention, running fourth behind Montoya on lap 87.

With 20 laps to go, Truex had nearly a two-second lead over Kenseth, with Montoya in third, Ambrose in fourth. Johnson, with his fresher tires, had moved up to 10th. By lap 93, Truex had a 4.2 second lead over second place, which was now Montoya. With 10 laps left, Truex's lead had increased to over five seconds.

The driver on the march was Jeff Gordon, the only car that took tires on that last pit stop that really made it pay off. The five-time winner here moved past Edwards for third, and had six laps to try to get past Montoya for second. Without a caution, the race was Truex's to lose, and he never made a mistake.

Jimmie Johnson's ninth-place finish maintained his points lead -- he's 25 ahead of Edwards. Ricky Stenhouse was 27th, the highest-finishing rookie, two spots ahead of Patrick. From Sonoma, the Sprint Cup series moves to Kentucky Speedway next Saturday.